Fat Gaining Olympics (?)

Is it ‘good’ that McDonalds, Cadbury & Coca-Cola have been allowed to be the 3 main sponsors of the Olympics when these 3 companies will collectively own an ugly statistic for their part in making the nation (the world) fatter?

I mean ‘fatter’ in the context of illness (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, infertility, stroke… etc etc). It’s deadly sponsorship. Just like smoking was promoted in the 50’s, products that the likes of Coca Cola, McDonalds and Cadbury are selling kill people. Sounds harsh, just look at Mexico! (CNN, 2011)

‘Deadly Olympic Sponsorship’

According to the NHS “In obese adults over 40 years of age, obesity can shorten life expectancy by 6-7 years” That’s around 10% of your life. Think how excited you get when you see a 10% discount on a product you want to buy?

And, this does not even touch on the hot topic of quality of life. It’s a fact that child obesity rates in the UK are increasing with 3 in 10 children classified as obese (FitPro, 2012).

The British government stated goals to bring the obesity rate back to levels we had in the year 2000, yet there is something stinky going on with the sponsorship of the 2012 Olympics. (Guardian, 2009).

“The Foresight report, a scientific report used to guide government policy, has predicted that by 2025, nearly half of men and over a third of women will be obese” (NHS, 2012)

What’s my point?

In an ideal world, companies like those mentioned above would not exist. Though they do. The next best thing would be for them to not be granted sponsorship rights (just like cigarette companies). So with that in mind…

Obviously a significant amount of money is needed to fund an event like the Olympics though perhaps there should be some kind of sponsorship ‘offset’. Kind of like a ‘carbon offset’. For example, Cadbury, Mc Donald’s and Coca-Cola produce unnecessary products, hence they have to pay a premium for sponsorship. And, as a gesture, perhaps they could pay money to the NHS to help pay for the problems they are contributing towards. And, exposure opportunities could be created for smaller brands who actually produce products that are beneficial to humans. Perhaps for free or greatly discounted.